When using a touch sensor, a tactile button click may be an effective way to offer the user tactile feedback when a button press is performed. However, some existing systems enable a button click in all modes of operation, even when a button press operation is not available to the user.
Accordingly, it would be an advantage over existing systems to be able to modify a touch sensor to include a dynamic suspension system that enables the touch sensor to emulate the tactile sensation that a user feels when using pushbutton switches. It would be a further advantage if a tactile button click was not available to the user when a button click cannot actually be performed.
Furthermore, including haptic feedback in large touchpad, such as a palm rest sized touchpad, is problematic. For example, haptic actuators are typically relatively large in size, consume a large amount of available power, and are expensive. Further, a large, palm rest sized touchpad with haptic feedback requires several haptic actuators adding to the cost and complications.
Additionally, haptic actuators are relatively thick in profile making a thin touchpad, among other things, problematic to design and manufacture.
Further, a large, palm rest sized clickable touchpad can involve structural issues for the device in which it is placed. For example, putting a large enough hole into a device housing (e.g., a laptop computer) to accommodate a movable palm rest sized touchpad can impact the structural integrity of the housing.
Typically, current click pads, or clickable touchpads, use a hinged or otherwise movable touchpad with a snap dome, a metal dome tactile switch, or the like, underneath the touchpad that “clicks” when the touchpad is pressed. Current force pads, typically, do not move when pressed, but use force sensors to detect the amount of pressing on the touchpad, and some variants use a haptic actuator (e.g., a vibrator) to give haptic feedback upon touch.
Other drawbacks, disadvantages, issues, and complications with current systems and methods also exist.